Farmers are outraged at finding dead livestock with bullet holes.
Last Saturday, Jan. 21 Colin and Ann Hunter, livestock producers in the Rivers/Rapid City area found one of their cows shot dead. She was in their cattle’s wintering field, about a quarter mile from the feed yard.
Ann Hunter explained that the cow was shot in the eye with what conservation officers determined was a small caliber bullet.
No one had permission to be out on their land that day.
“We do give permission,” said Hunter. “But it’s not hunting season.”
In fact, visibility was poor and the family wonders what the target was.
“It was thick, thick fog. That makes us even madder. If you can’t see the target, don’t pull the trigger,” says Hunter.
The story first went up on Facebook; within 24 hours it had 1,100 shares. Hunter was surprised and said, “I’m shocked how far this [story] has gone.” Through Facebook, she has read of many other rural families who have gone through the same thing – losing livestock and even pets to stray bullets.
Earlier this winter, during deer hunting season Wendy and Gerry Nykoliation of Crandall also lost two head of cattle.
A local person, whom they know, notified them of what they reported as a dead cow.
But it was a calf that they found and it had been shot.
“We know for sure. We found the carcass of the calf. Sure enough, when we rolled it over, there was the bullet hole right through its chest.”
But that did not explain a second animal that was missing - the cow that never returned that day with the other cattle.
The Nykoliations do not pin this on First Nations hunters, who haven’t been seen hunting or cruising the area for many years.
In both cases the farmers are outraged that people trespassed and killed their livestock, all within close range of their homes.
Nykoliation says no one had permission to shoot in, or near the field where their cattle were wintering.
She says, hunters who come from a distance, such as Winnipeg, come to the yard, bringing maps of the area, politely wanting to know which quarters they can shoot on.
